Authored by Nuri Dragoj. Translation by Petrit Latifi.
National politics should not forget for a moment the “Mitrovica issue”. Ramadan Kelmendi’s book “Intertwining facts in political clashes” shows us that Mitrovica is the area of great battles, which have entered history as its emblem. It is the capillary that connects the superhuman sacrifices of Albanians in the centuries-old efforts for independence from Serbian rule, it is the standard of loyalty and patriotism, where every resident of that area feels proud of their identity.
Mitrovica is the part that was devastated and hit hard by the occupiers, but it is also the barricade of resistance or the indicator of Albanian resistance. It has been burned and machine-gunned several times and the innocent men of this area have been put hundreds of times in front of the wall of the occupiers’ shooting. But the brave men of this land, where only words of freedom were always clearly written, planted the tree of freedom on the pools of blood of war.
Mitrovica has never surrendered and, clutching a collection of wounds in its body, this area has regenerated itself, becoming an impregnable fortress of resistance. In Mitrovica, where great historians or writers have been absent, there has been no lack of commanders of liberation wars, heroes and martyrs, patriots and nationalists, who, all together, adorn the halo of Mother Albania.
Mitrovica itself has, over the centuries, instilled in its people the values of humanity and respect, which is why every resident of that city feels lucky to have been a son of that humble but glorious land. Looking through this book, it is not difficult to see that Ramadan Kelmendi appears to us as a hero, not only of Kosova, but of the entire Albanian cause.
Ramadan Kelmendi
He was an excellent politician, a contemporary diplomat and a journalist to be envied. In the articles published in the written media, as well as in the interviews given, we find a scrupulous publicist, who did not compromise with anyone before the truth, before the defense to the point of sacrifice of Mitrovica in particular and Kosovo in general, a defender of Albanianism.
A person who knows how to write, without much water in his phrases, problematic, clear in his thoughts, concrete and visionary, a journalist who knows how to respect ethics, but who is not afraid of criticism, an analyst who anticipates events and a very good jurist of the law. Ramadan’s style is clear, precise and he leans towards laconicism, which is not at all easy to universalize his thoughts and ideas.
In order to break through the boundaries of provincial restrictions, he has given importance to connections at the national level, quoting also very striking statements of great world authors who have been masters of historical matter. From this point of view, he has constructed a life’s work, discarding complexes and giving importance to seemingly small issues, from which the big one is structured.
Where are the Albanian politicians?
As a rare person, the author of this historical and current biography does not look for evil in the external enemy, as we often do, but in himself, in his compatriots, in the leaders of local government, in the deputies, ministers and prime ministers of his country, in every Albanian citizen. At a time when the Serbian military groups had increased, militarized and become more ferocious, Ramadan Kelmendi expresses the pain that their harshness was aided by Albanian spies, people paid and put at the service of Serbia, to harm their brothers, the issue of Kosovo, in exchange for payments full of poison.
List of Albanians killed
He published in the newspapers Rilindja and Bota sot, the list of 66 patriotic Albanians who were to be killed by the Serbs, whose names were given by Albanians, including Kelmendi himself. The same phenomenon that happened in the South of Albania, in 1914, when the Greek military forces killed, imprisoned and interned the village nobility and all patriotic Albanians who wanted to speak and read Albanian.
When Kelmendi writes, he does not take orders from anyone. He does not do as others do who are guided by media owners, heads of state institutions or even worse by anti-Albanian structures. He writes with his own mind, not avoiding Mitrovica and Kosovo for a moment. In the pages of the newspapers he brings to life the Serbian crimes of 1999, the murder of a large number of Kosovar citizens, the burning of houses, the division of families in two, creating pain and misery for each other’s fate, their flight as refugees, the difficulties encountered and the support found in their brothers in Albania.
Interesting are the meetings with representatives of religious faiths and the opinions expressed by him before the international community, where he demanded that Mitrovica be an example of peace and stability in Kosovo and beyond. Religious, moral and human awareness had to be raised. But above all, it was necessary to strengthen ties with international organizations and above all, to punish the criminals for the murders and massacres committed.
The ethnic cleansing of Albanians of Mitrovica
In the daily press, not a little space Ramadan’s writings are about the continuation of ethnic cleansing in the north of Mitrovica, now with a new method, buying Albanian houses. In the years 2000-2005, about 100 houses were sold, which saddened Kelmendi. He was also a resident of the north of Mitrovica, where he had a 4-story house, which they had burned down, but he did not abandon it.
He reconstructed his house again and although the Serbs approached him with a staggering figure of 980 thousand euros, he refused to sell it. Therefore, he had the right to reproach his compatriots, that by selling the houses they were helping Serbian politics to accelerate the division of Mitrovica and sabotaging the politics of Kosovo, which wanted the Albanian city in the north undivided, as it had been historically.
The houses were purchased by the Serbian Coordination Center for Kosovo, and if a house cost 40 thousand euros, they would increase the price by 5-6 times, since paramilitaries and bridge guards were housed in them.
The massive Serbian constructions in the north of Mitrovica, which were being built to house Serbian extremist forces, greatly worried the deputy. He made the Serbian revenge a problem for Kosovar society, politics, the parliament and international organizations, protesting in the daily press, when reactions were sometimes lukewarm and sometimes absent.
He could not accept such a situation, so he criticized the local and central authorities, who had not done enough to stop the Serbian activity in the cleansing of the Albanian population. The construction of palaces in the Bosniak neighborhood continued uninterrupted, at a time when Kosovar politics had not risen to the level necessary to shock international opinion and force European envoys to take the right stance.
Albanians were seen as second-class citizens
Kelmendi did not agree with considering the Serbian defense structures as something ordinary, since their strengthening was aimed at scaring the Albanians and forcing them to empty the territory, as only in this way could the process of ethnic cleansing be accelerated. The Albanians who continued to live in northern Kosovo were being seen by both sides as second-class citizens, instead of Kosovo focusing its attention on them and encouraging others to do the same.
The fact that the Municipality of Mitrovica had not repaired any burned houses in the north showed that it had left it out of hand. For Kelmendi, when the leaders of Kosovo saw that the Serbs were buying Albanian houses and increasing the construction of palaces, they should learn from their actions and invest in repairing burned houses, curbing the sale of apartments by siding with the lied or frightened people.
Despite the high level of poverty, the deafness and indifference shown in the face of the reality presented by Kelmendi and his friends could not be forgiven. And in such circumstances, Ramadani was forced to hope for civic awareness, so he called on the residents of Mitrovica and all of Kosovo to vote for those people who did not want privileges, but were above the law and not abused.
But where were Kosovo and Albania all these years? Where are the politicians of this nation unjustly separated by history? Why did they not give the donation, so that Tirana and Prishtina would not sleep until the houses of the Albanians of Mitrovica were returned to their previous condition. Ten euros for each family would be enough for the burned houses to be habitable again.
Trepca decides the fate for Albanians
Ten percent of the money looted from taxpayers would be taken from the people in power and no house would be sold in Mitrovica. Ramadan Kelmendi knows well that without a stable economy, without natural resources and the necessary income, a nation cannot stand on its feet. Therefore, on December 1, 1999, in Kosova Sot, he published the article, “Whoever wins the battle for Trepça, wins the war for power in Kosovo and Serbia”, which he bases on the great resources that flow from it.
“Whoever wins the battle for Trepça, wins the war for power in Kosovo and Serbia”.
In today’s turbulent and sodomized time of politics, of supposedly globalist speculation, when the notion of the nation and consequently the notion of the province and homeland completely fades, Ramadani feels shocked. He accepts human eternity, on the condition of a real challenge, of the affirmation of the national values, of his province and homeland, which he implores. He made this affirmation, because only in this way can he affirm himself before the reader, who is often difficult, full of demands, doubts, as well as judgmental, dismissive and critical, who seeks the truth.
Let’s vote for those who do not want privileges.
Ramadan Kelmendi is very attentive. He sees and analyzes every action of Kosovar and foreign politicians, the stance of various non-governmental associations and organizations, of institutions or individuals who were engaged in the Kosovo problem, seeing everything in relation to the national issue. He understood that Serbian politics found a thousand and one ways to achieve its goal.
When the European Institute for Stability made the proposal to divide the city of Mitrovica ces, that is, the northern part to pass through the municipality of Zvecan, he sounded the alarm about a serious danger threatening Mitrovica. This was accompanied by other restrictive measures on the part of the Serbs, since the Albanians who had left were not being allowed to return to their properties, denying them the right to reside in their homeland, clearly violating the ethnic unity of the Mitrovica region.
We are dealing with a class politician, whose eye and mind do not miss anything. He is one of the few who notices everything with an analytical eye. He publicly criticizes the efforts that were made, supposedly unintentionally, to destroy the unity of the nation divided in two. In April 2000, in Kosova Sot, with the article “What is missing from the exhibition 80 years of parliament in Albania”, he highlights the great absence of that exhibition, which was related to the mother trunk, the lack of the exhibition of the resolution of the Albanian Parliament that recognized Kosovo as an independent state, the telegrams of political and scientific personalities of the Albanian state on this issue, the position of the Albanian Parliament towards the heroic war of the Kosovars, etc.
Their absence served the politics of division and brought grist to the mill of Serbian politics. Kelmendi, as a sensitive intellectual, drew attention to the denial of the right to pensions for the Albanians of Kosovo, as an inhuman act, since thousands of people did not have the most basic income for survival. In the article titled “Pensioners should not be treated as beggars”, at a time when NATO had been in Kosovo for over a year, an appeal was made to Kosovar and international politics to assess this issue as a priority, since it had to do with human dignity and economic survival.
The act of self-determination of Albanians in Kosovo, in which Ramadan Kelmendi was among the main actors, honorary president of July 2, 1990, considers the first step towards independence, a historical result of the awareness of the Albanian people. Honoring September 7, the day of the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo in the Legendary Kaçanik, where he himself was a delegate, he considered it as the anniversary of legal independence, but he does not see it as appropriate to celebrate, since their dream was independence.
It was a platform of the Kosovar nation, which served as an organizational and combative basis for the internationalization of the issue. His efforts in drafting the Status of the Municipality of Mitrovica, as chairman of the commission, the preservation of territorial integrity in a legal manner and clashes with the group that expressed itself in favor of removing Zvecan from the Statute, show his political clarity.
He declared at the time that the removal of Zvecan would lead to the division of Mitrovica, when it is known that it is the territory of that Albanian city. Removing it from the statute would mean the Albanians themselves accepting, legally and politically, the division of Mitrovica. Kelmendi, as a person who cared about Kosovo to the core, could not agree with the employment of people who had served Serbia and the dismissal of Albanians with known contributions to freedom.
He was in favor of conducting competitions, where the best would win. In the newspaper Metalisti, May 10, 2001, he criticized discrimination in employment, giving an example from the battery industry, where out of 11 employed names, only two were Albanians. In this context, on August 16, 2001, in the newspaper 55, he published the article “Who won the war in Kosovo and who lost it”, where he ironized speculative and anti-national actions, since those who did not contribute received benefits, while those who made sacrifices remain unemployed.
63 000 Albanians in Mitrovica were unemployed
In Mitrovica, 93% of job seekers were Albanians. In 2008, Kelmendi claimed that 63 thousand Albanians were unemployed. In this context, he quotes Abraham Lincoln, who said: “To be an unconscionable person in your actions is your personal tragedy and the tragedy of the family to which you belong, but to be an irresponsible politician is no longer a personal tragedy, but a tragedy of the people and the society to which you belong”.
In the newspaper Koha Ditore, he opposed the agreement for the alienation of the property of the National Hero, Isa Boletini. In November 2007, Ramadan Kelmendi asked Kosovo institutions to take measures to ensure that the remains of Isa Boletini were reburied in the cemetery of his native village, Boletini. He demanded that the Isa tower be reconstructed, the old road be opened and the existing one from Mitrovica to the Boletini tower complex be asphalted.
The division of Mitrovica – a stab in the back for Kosovo
As an intellectual and MP, he strongly opposed the division of Mitrovica on ethnic grounds. He was against intolerance, lack of discipline, irresponsibility. In his capacity as head of the LDK, the Mitrovica branch refused to legitimize the division of Kosovo with a statute. In March 2002, the press published his appeal to the highest structures of Kosovo on the issue of the political, territorial, administrative and legal integrity of Mitrovica, since Albanians recognized Mitrovica as a free and undivided city.
He criticized in the press Kosovo leaders who expressed their support for the creation of the commission in northern Mitrovica. The Zëri newspaper, on July 1, 2002, reported that Kelmendi was against the participation of Serbian parties in the local elections in Kosovo in October 2002, disagreeing with the OSCE decision on their participation, as they were parties registered in Serbia.
Albanians rights denied
He had also entered into debates with the Chief Administrator of Kosovo, Bernard Kushner, regarding the violation of the rights of the villages of Kelmend, Boletin and Zhazha in Mitrovica, which had remained dependent on Zveçan against their will. Albanian villagers were denied all rights, even though the municipality in question was financed by Kosovo. Even passports were issued to them with Serbian nationality.
Therefore, on behalf of the LDK for Mitrovica, in June 2003, he demanded through the Bota Sot newspaper that the right to property, its preservation and legal heritage, rules, transparency and law be ensured.
Through the press, Ramadan Kelmendi has scientifically explained the geographical meaning of northern Kosovo and the ethnic cleansing of Albanians from 1941 to 1999.
Serbian atrocities against Albanians of Mitrovica (1941-1953)
He openly says that Serbia has never hidden the tendency of cleansing. In the years 1941-1953, 5,135 residents were forcibly removed from Mitrovica. From the Albanian Shala region, by denying them the right to work, health care, social protection, school, pension, the Serbs made 21,783 residents leave. He gives the burned schools, houses, stolen livestock, work tools, libraries disappeared. Over 3,001 burned houses and 26,836 residents displaced on the eve of 1999.
He saw the failure to resolve the Mitrovica issue as a basis for instability, because without Mitrovica there could be no Kosovo, the required standards would not be met. MP Kelmendi had no peace, he could not rest on the beaches when his brothers in Mitrovica were experiencing insecurity.
In one of the parliamentary sessions, when the season’s holidays were declared and the MPs were thinking of choosing beautiful coastal places, Ramadani surprised the entire public opinion, declaring that he would not rest but would remain among the citizens of Mitrovica, at their service.
Raising problems related to the injustices that were being done to the Albanians of Mitrovica was seen as a civic obligation. Albanians should live where they have their properties without ethnic or religious differences. In September 2006, Kelmendi was threatened not to run as president of the LDK. In December, he asked the Kosovo Assembly to adopt a special resolution for Mitrovica.
It should not be forgotten that before the war, Mitrovica had 76% of the Albanian population, so the population expelled from their lands had to return again across the Ibar River, where they had lived for centuries. And, despite the great pressure exerted on him, in the elections of February 3, 2007, he would win again.
He saw the political decentralization of Kosovo as conceived only as an ethnic Serbian need, at a time when it should have been seen as a process of economic facilitation. This caused the municipalities with a Serbian majority not to recognize the central authorities of Kosovo, to apply Serbian laws, seals and symbols of the Serbian alphabet. For this, Kelmendi charged the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Local Government with responsibility.
The decentralization plan was based on the experience of developed democracies, but it did not adapt to the conditions of Kosovo. At the time when Kosovo declared independence and became a separate state, Kelmendi discussed in the press the practice that should be followed for Kosovo Albanians who could file a complaint with the Strasbourg Court, on issues of genocide committed against them, damages, appropriations and property rights.
As for the population census, he demanded that it be carried out based on the criterion of truth. Those Albanians who had been forcibly removed from the north should return again, register in the north, since that was their homeland. Before 1999, 83% of the Albanian population was there, while in 2011 only 20%. He was concerned that no one was condemning Serbian crimes.
He criticized the lack of lobbying in foreign policy, since those who were charged with such work only saw to it that they could have a cup of coffee or solve personal business problems.
Kosovo is not a multiethnic state – its an Albanian majority nation
Kelmendi is one of the few who has raised his voice against the presentation of Kosovo as a country with a large number of ethnic groups, when in reality the minorities were negligible. Should Kosovo be called multiethnic, when 93% of the population was Albanian? Definitely not.
Kosovo’s politics were influenced by external pressure, be they individuals sent on missions. It seems that Serbian politics, which was interested in this peaceful ethnic diversity, had more of an effect on them. Kelmendi also saw this action as a malicious intention of the Serbs but also of some international representative, who thought that in this way the climate with ethnic minorities could be softened.
100 years have passed since the moment of the division of Kosovo by the Great Powers at the London Ambassadors’ Conference of 1913. The same powers that signed the partition seem to have been convinced of the wrong action. They became aware that without solving the Albanian issue there can be no peace in the Balkans. This should be appreciated.
Let us unite and work for unification, since only Albanians can do this. Others are ready to make excuses and work to tell the great ones: “You are wrong, that nation will not be created”.
Let us learn from the life and work of Ramadan Kelmendi. His book is a great contribution to Albanian historiography. It should be studied by politicians and serve as a guide for defending the national issue. It should be analyzed by historians, psychologists, sociologists and others and serve to draft plans and platforms for the benefit of the nation. In reconceptualizing history, care must be taken to heal from dogmas.
The time has come to see historical facts in their autonomy, away from politicization. Things must be told as they were. History cannot be the servant of politics. There may be some discussion, but nothing bad comes from discussion. It is the historical sources that are researched, that shed light on events, which no one has the right to canonize. And most importantly, the essence must be seen, which is related to the starting point and the end of history. Positive criticism is important. It seems that Ramadani has faced this test.
There is no Albania without Mitrovica
We should all turn our eyes to Mitrovica. Without Mitrovica, there is no Kosovo. Albanian and Kosovar politics should not separate Mitrovica from the agenda of diplomatic affairs for a moment. Mitrovica is sacred and precious, first of all because it is Albanian, but also because it has shed a lot of blood, and because it has great natural resources, it has abundant water that Kosovo needs.
Today in Europe there are countries that have produced many castles, but little heroism. There are other countries that have produced many historians, but little history. And this happens for several reasons. But the first reason has to do with the fact that in their own areas there are no epics of legendary wars or the other reason that in Europe today more businessmen are cultivated than heroes.
Whereas with Mitrovica the opposite has happened. It has produced over the centuries many martyrs and few historians, many epics of war and blood but few pages of books, where generations see their identity reflected. And according to a simple analysis, the reason is that heroes are brave and determined in war, but very wise and modest after the war, that is, in times of peace.
It is not Ramadan Kelmendi who needs Albania, but it is Albanian society, the Albanian nation, that needs his life and work. We need to have as many Ramadans as possible, because the expression of Sami Frashëri, almost a century and a half ago, is still relevant today: “Albania will be made when the majority of Albanians become Albanians”.
The author is a researcher, publicist and Honorary Member of the Association of Albanian Writers and Artists “Pope Clement XI Albani”, Sweden.
Reference
Balkan Academia 